Note before starting: this post wasn’t originally written for the blog, it was an email I sent on May 3 amidst the Bengal assembly elections and some chaos over the Election Commission attempting to preventively detain TMC leaders. I’ve very slightly changed the email and reposted it here because I felt it was interesting and educational enough to merit a spot on the blog. Therefore, the style is a bit different from what’s usually on the blog. I don’t think this is really an issue because it’s packed with good content, but I wanted to explain that oddity before starting. Now, onto my lightly-edited email.
After our conversation on the phone a few days ago about preventive detention, I created a small “crash course on preventive detention laws in India” because the topic is interesting, and it’s a bit disturbing how little it’s talked about or even known about in India.
Starting with the most recent incident – here are articles on Election Commission’s attempt at preventive detention of over 1000 people, mostly TMC leaders, including sitting MLAs and TMC candidates. Thankfully stopped by the Calcutta High Court, but still, seriously?
Don’t get your hopes up though – Calcutta HC stopped preventive detention from happening solely on the basis of this list, but they allowed preventive detention under preexisting laws 1. Which is where you get this – NDTV reports 571 people taken into “preventive custody” in connection with Bengal polls on April 23 2, and by April 28 Rediff puts the number at 2473 according to the EC itself 3.
This is bad and tramples on the idea of due process, but nothing out of the usual. If you’re interested in India’s long and inglorious history of preventive detention, check out the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlawful_Activities_(Prevention)_Act,_1967
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir_Public_Safety_Act,_1978
Both are being used to jail dissidents, political opponents, and generally anyone who ticks off the ruling party. Kashmir’s PSA will let the government jail someone “with a view to preventing him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir or the maintenance of the public order” 4. Incredibly vague, wonder what could go wrong here?
Interestingly, the first case of J&K’s PSA being used was Sheikh Abdullah jailing a trade union leader in 1978 who campaigned for the Janata Party in the previous election 5. So yeah, rough start, but surely things got better from there? Nope, things only got worse. In 2025, the PSA was used to jail an AAP MLA in Kashmir for criticizing a District Magistrate 6. As usual, the detention had no legal or intellectual basis and was overturned, although it took the J&K High Court eight months to deliver relief just last week, criticizing the detention having “non-application of mind” (court-speak for “what the heck were you guys doing”) 7. So yeahhh, we’ve upgraded from jailing opposition party campaigners to jailing actual sitting MLAs for social media posts… How come more people don’t know about this? Sad case of forgotten history and news not considered important enough for people’s time.
The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is equally draconian and even more dangerous because of its national scope. It defines “unlawful activity” as an action “which causes or is intended to cause disaffection against India” or “which disclaims, questions, disrupts or is intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India,” among a bunch of other equally vague thought-crimes 8. As you might expect, this has opened the door to all kinds of abuse of power, where people are jailed for campaigning for marginalized communities’ rights in ways that irritate politicians. In a four-year period 2019-2023, there were over 10,000 UAPA arrests but only 335 convictions 9. From 2016 to 2020, 24,134 people were accused under the UAPA, of whom only 212 were convicted and 386 acquitted – most of the accused spend years languishing in preventive detention before the court says “haha sorry, you can go now” 10. No evidence needed to detain political opponents for years on end, one of the most shameful pieces of legislation that India has passed.
The UAPA has been used to punish leaders of protest movements. Some interesting examples:
Sharjeel Imam was jailed under the UAPA for a speech where he argued for blockading the Siliguri Corridor and cutting off the northeast to protest the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), The blockade proposal was not the main point of the speech and, in my opinion after reading+watching it, a mix of hyperbole and the fervor of a young kid who had rapidly and unexpectedly gotten a large audience; there was no credible threat of him actually blockading the Siliguri Corridor and cutting it off. He is still in jail and has cases against him in multiple states, including Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh where he did not even give speeches. He’s accused of having triggered the 2020 Delhi anti-CAA/NRC riots and the resulting violence. Shekhar Gupta’s words here convey my opinion well, so I’ll quote:
“It still doesn’t justify his long incarceration because you can’t jail young people indefinitely for stupidity and bringing disgrace on their IIT education.” 11
Umar Khalid (the more famous case) is also in jail under the UAPA for speeches that incited the 2020 anti-CAA riots, as are multiple other people.
The most ridiculous application of the UAPA is probably the Bhima Koregaon case. The details of this one are messy, but the high-level summary is as follows: every year, thousands of Dalits come to Bhima Koregaon in Pune to celebrate the contributions of Dalit soldiers in an 1818 battle that the British won against the Marathas. However, in 2018, clashes broke out between the Dalits and the Marathas due to disagreements over the history and mutual dislike for reasons I’m sure you can guess (the burning of Ambedkarite flags and desecration of a historically significant Dalit tomb give some clues). The Maharashtra police chose not to investigate RSS organizers accused of instigating the violence (many of whom had a history of rioting, such as Sambhaji Bhide); instead, the police brought charges against people who gave speeches criticizing the oppression of Dalits, arguing that these speeches incited the violence. The argument didn’t make much sense, so the government added masala by claiming that these activists were actually Naxalites hoping to recruit Dalits to the Maoist cause through distortion of history – that’s how the case soon resulted in 16 people being arrested under the UAPA 12. Most of these cases were absurd, here’s a sample:
Stan Swamy, an 81-year-old Jesuit priest and activist for tribal rights accused of supporting Maoists and inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence. He died in jail a few years ago after being subjected to multiple indignities, such as being denied for weeks a sipper straw despite having Parkinson’s and struggling to drink water. Since his death, the Washington Post has reported that evidence was planted on his computer by hackers over the span of two years 13, and that he was also a surveillance target for Israeli-supplied spyware that the Pune Police were using 14. The whole case is a mess of fabricated evidence and violations of due process.
Varavara Rao, age 78 at the time of being arrested, accused of having Maoist links and giving speeches inciting violence. He was a poet and activist, speaking out about issues like land reform and staged encounters against Naxals. His wikipedia page is very interesting, I recommend reading it – the government’s been out to get him for a loooong time. Arrested several times during the Emergency, released over and over due to lack of evidence that he actually incited violence, then arrested several times post-Emergency as well for inciting violence and attempting to overthrow the government (in one case, acquitted 17 years after the case’s start) 15. However, the Bhima Koregaon incident was where he ran out of his 9 lives. He has gotten bail, but the charges are sticking, mainly because the burden of proof is so low for UAPA arrests. The case against him and similar activists is so bad it’s almost funny:
“Possessing Naxalite materials is one aspect, but spreading thoughts of the Naxalites…that is the agenda of urban Naxals,” said Pawar. “They are not innocent. They are intelligent persons. This is a top-level conspiracy to threaten the sovereignty and integrity of India.” 16.
The PSA and the UAPA are the most infamous preventive detention laws because their cases are more high-profile. However, there are many ‘petty’ cases of preventive detention like those of the TMC workers in Bengal.
Section 170 of the BNSS allows preventive detention by a “police officer knowing of a design to commit any cognizable offence” for up to 24 hours without a warrant, a power that is often abused.
There is also the National Security Act (NSA), used recently to arrest Sonam Wangchuk after protests calling for Sixth Schedule constitutional protections turned violent. He was released after 6 months in jail where he was prosecuted using poor evidence, often clips of his speeches taken out of context. The NSA allows detention of people “acting in any manner prejudicial to the defence of India, the relations of India with foreign powers, or the security of India” or “acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of Public order” etc 18. The NSA allows preventive detention without formal conviction for up to 3 months, renewable in 3-month blocks by the state government for up to 12 months without any charges being pressed.
As this email has hopefully demonstrated, preventive detention isn’t some long-gone law used by the British Raj and since abandoned. It is still used today and has been strengthened and expanded by post-1947 governments. Used widely across India to harangue opposition politicians (notably in Kashmir), shut down protests and dissent (Ladakh and Delhi anti-CAA protests), and influence election outcomes (Bengal).
Sources
Source On Calcutta HC allowing preventive detention in accordance with existing statutes: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/calcutta-high-court-allows-preventive-arrests-for-bengal-elections-as-per-law-11394622↩︎
NDTV source On # of people detained in Bengal: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/west-bengal-election-2026-phase-1-voting-live-updates-trinamool-tmc-bjp-fight-for-152-seats-pm-modi-mamata-banerjee-11395947#544618↩︎
rediff on # of people detained: https://www.rediff.com/news/commentary/2026/apr/28/over-2000-in-preventive-custody-ahead-of-bengal-polls/410f2e7deff65a93a0cb7f4a685e69fb↩︎
full PSA 1978 text here, not very interesting but linking source because it’s so unbelievable https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/16496/1/public_safety_act%2C_1978.pdf↩︎
as usual, great history lesson from Praveen Swami at theprint.in – this one is actually worth reading https://theprint.in/opinion/security-code/restoring-jks-statehood-kashmiris-need-treated-other-indians/2715419/↩︎
on AAP MLA jailed under PSA: https://theprint.in/india/jks-lone-aap-mla-mehraj-malik-booked-under-psa-jail-cant-intimidate-soldier-of-aap-says-kejriwal/2738706/↩︎
on MLA being released last week: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jammu-and-kashmir/aap-mla-mehraj-malik-released-from-kathua-jail-after-jk-hc-quashes-his-psa-detention/article70914781.ece↩︎
UAPA 1967 wording I quoted from: https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/A1967-37.pdf↩︎
Source on UAPA low conviction rate: https://thewire.in/government/over-10000-persons-arrests-under-uapa-but-only-335-convictions-between-2019-23↩︎
Second source on UAPA low conviction rate: https://thewire.in/government/uapa-case-data-process-punishment-home-ministry-rajya-sabha↩︎
Shekhar Gupta article with Sharjeel Imam quote: https://theprint.in/opinion/writings-on-the-wall/writings-on-the-wall-bengals-epitaph-for-left-is-i-let-doctrine-become-dogma-ideology-obstacle/2913628/↩︎
Source on # of arrests in Bhima Koregaon case: https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/indian-authorities-must-release-all-imprisoned-activists-in-the-bk16-case/↩︎
Source on planted evidence against Stan Swamy: archived version at https://web.archive.org/web/20221220055653/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/13/stan-swamy-hacked-bhima-koregaon/ and original at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/13/stan-swamy-hacked-bhima-koregaon/↩︎
Source on Pune police using Israeli spyware against Stan Swamy and others: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/13/stan-swamy-hacked-bhima-koregaon/ (archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20221220071249/https://www.wired.com/story/modified-elephant-planted-evidence-hacking-police/ )↩︎
Source on Varavara Rao’s history: archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20200718032019/https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/varavara-rao-politics-jail-coronavirus-6510434/↩︎
Source on absurd prosecution of Varavara Rao and other ‘urban naxals’: https://scroll.in/article/892464/photo-shows-about-lynchings-seeking-arms-from-nepal-claims-against-activists-arrested-on-tuesday↩︎
Source on planted evidence about PM assassination: https://web.archive.org/web/20210706104148/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/06/bhima-koregaon-case-india/↩︎
Wording of National Security Act: https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/2022-08/ISdivII_NSAAct1980_20122018%5B1%5D.pdf↩︎